Custom Roms

Halloween was a wonderful day for every Android-fanboy this time round as it was when Google released the Nexus 5 and along with it Android 4.4 KitKat. Although, for some (Galaxy Nexus owners), it wasn’t as good a day. Google officially announced that it’s Galaxy Nexus (both GSM and Verizon variants) would not receive any Android 4.4 KitKat goodness. To put it in another way, the Galaxy Nexuses will be stuck on Android 4.3 for eternity; ..and then the good Lord said, “let there be XDA”.

According to XDA Developers, the following AOSP ROM is quite stable (it is!) with the exception of a few isolated issues like animation and graphical glitches (did not bother us much) which will be fixed in the upcoming releases.

Pre-requisites to flashing this ROM

Back up data and settings using a recommended custom recovery tool, like ClockworkMod (CWM) or TWRP, as it creates a complete image of the existing phone setup.

Boot the phone into Fastboot mode by pressing and holding Volume Up, Volume Down and Power buttons together.

Once the device reboots, you should see something like this —

Use the Volume up and Volumedown buttons to navigate to the red banner above the opened up Android to say “Recovery mode” and then press the Power button.

In ClockworkMod recovery, perform a full data wipe task by choosing Wipe Data/Factory Reset (use volume buttons to navigate and power button to select the desired option in recovery).

Wait until the wipe process completes and then perform Wipe Cache Partition. Let the process complete and then select Wipe Dalvik Cache from advance option. This will prevent ROM related errors or boot loop issues.

Once the wipe process is done, return to main recovery menu and select Install Zip from SD card.

Then select Choose zip from SD card. Now, locate the Android 4.4 ROM zip file you copied earlier to the phone and select it by tapping Power button. Confirm the ROM installation on next screen and let the installation begin.

Then, repeat the previous step for installing Google Apps as well.

After Google apps is also installed, go back and tap on reboot system now in the recovery menu. The phone will now reboot automatically. The first boot might take about five minutes to complete. So, don’t worry!

Once rebooted, you will be greeted with the Android setup wizard. Set your phone up and enjoy!

Steps involved to get get root access on the 4.4 ROM

Install the Nexus Root Toolkit you downloaded earlier. It will extract certain files so make sure you install in within a folder.

Once installed, you will be asked to select your device. Select Galaxy Nexus GSM/HSPA+ and the select you ROM as Custom ROM – KK. Then, let the toolkit do it’s thing until you’re greeted with the following dialog box.

Under the Root section tick Custom Recovery if it’s un-ticked and then press Root.

From here on, just follow the instructions the pop up on your computer and you’ll be fine.

Once, the process ends, you will an up and running KitKat ROM with root access.

So finally,on popular demand, we now have a special tutorial for you guys which will cover all the steps required for you to install CM9 (based on ICS) on your SE Xperia X10!

Please note that your device needs to have the Bootloader unlocked and you must be rooted for this to work.

Disclaimer: Follow all the instructions carefully mentioned in this article, we should not be held responsible in any manner if your X10 doesn’t boot up or gets bricked due to not following the instructions.

Flash the included FXP .ftf flash file which should already be included in the “FXP 129 Custom Rom for the X10” zip file.

Copy the Google Apps file and the “update-cm9.0.0” file, which should also be present in the file you’ve downloaded above. to your SD Card and reboot your device.

Now while rebooting the phone, keep pressing back key/volume down to enter recovery, from the menu, Wipe Cache, Wipe Data/Factory Reset and Wipe Dalvik Cache then choose install zip from sdcard/choose zip from sdcard and select update-cm9.0.0 as well as the Google apps file.

Reboot the phone and now enjoy CM9 on your Xperia X10! ;)

Please note if you have any problems in during this tutorial, restart the process or follow the instructions given in this tutorial. The instructions and the process is the same!

In the world of Android, alot of themes, tweaks and tricks require the need of a Custom Deodexed rom. Deodexed roms are firmwares where the .APK files of the System Software itself are packaged in a way so that they can be modified easily without causing any harm to the framework or the Android Environment.

This tutorial will cover all the steps required to deodex any stock Android Rom so that you don’t need to install a Custom Rom yourself!

Disclaimer: Follow all the instructions carefully mentioned in this article, we should not be held responsible in any manner if your Android Device doesn’t boot up or gets bricked due to not following the instructions.

This tutorial will help you enable the tablet interface on your Google Nexus 7, which has a phone-like interface by default.

Phone Interface

Tablet Interface (Portrait)

Tablet Interface (Landscape)

Cool, right? So let’s start with the tutorial!

Disclaimer: Follow all the instructions carefully mentioned in this article, we should not be held responsible in any manner if your Nexus 7 doesn’t boot up or gets bricked due to not following the instructions. Also, please note that this patch is currently in development. Please read the instructions carefully.

Note that –

This will mainly work on AOSP Nexus 7 roms. If it doesn’t work for you, please install an AOSP Rom and try again.

This tutorial will guide you through all the steps required to install CyanogenMod 9.0, which is based over Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3 on your Xperia 2011 device. Video tutorial shall be coming soon too! Please see that your device needs to be Bootloader unlocked for this to work. Click me for a tutorial on Bootloader unlocking and rooting you Xperia device.

P.S. – Please note that these instructions are only meant for reference purpose. In case you are coming from another ROM and already have a custom Recovery on your phone, then it’s mandatory to Wipe all data before flashing this ROM. It is highly advised to read through the official XDA ROM thread posted here to avoid any glitches while flashing the ROM.

Technologic101 will not be responsible if you brick your device by following the procedure given below. Proceed with caution!

Now reboot your phone and your phone should have updated to CyanogenMod 9.0 which runs over Ice Cream Sandwich!

Here’s a video of me demonstrating some of the features –

P.S. – All links have been updated as of July 18, 2012. If you come across any errors, please restart the process and try again. If you’re unable to do it, first flash a Stock SE Rom and then start the process again!

GOOD NEWS for Google Nexus S owners,there is a team of developers out there working on getting a port of the new Android OS over to your device. If you’re one of the brave, let’s get you started on getting this thing set up!

Be aware that this isn’t an official release, in fact it is an SDK port, so it is bound to have some problems. The following are a list of bugs:

3G(for some)

Data

NFC

Panorama Mode

Camera will force close for the 1st time

Procedure :

Step 1: Backup everything on the storage (SD card) of your phone. Plug it in to your computer and mount it as a drive. Copy everything off into a folder on your computer. You will lose everything during the next step.

Step 2: For those of you new (and even old) to rooting your phone, I am going to choose the simplest way for you to go about this. The good guys over at XDA Developers Forums have created a a batch file, which is a file that executes a list of commands, that will handle rooting your phone. Its simple, but it requires Windows XP/Vista/7.

How to unlock the boot loader of your 2011 Sony Ericsson Android phone!

Sony Ericsson is now the first company to offer an unlock for their boot loader. This means that rooting the phone now gets easier! Today, I’ll be giving you a step-by-step on how to unlock the boot-loader. Also, I’ll be showing you how to root the Xperia Play in another post! This tutorial was tested on an Xperia ARC.

Warning : Do this at your own risk. You could brick the phone making it useless. Also, remember that unlocking the boot loader involves Factory Resetting the device which means that all your data would be lost. save it before proceeding.